On October 1, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that an unidentified whistleblower, “who voluntarily provided original information” to the SEC “that led to the successful enforcement” action against an undisclosed company, has been awarded a record $14 million. According to the SEC, the award “recognizes the significance of the information that the Claimant provided to the Commission, the assistance the Claimant provided in the Commission action, and the law enforcement interest in deterring violations by granting awards.”
This is the third such award the SEC has made under the whistleblower provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (DFA) since the statute’s passage in 2010. The others were in the amounts of $50,000 and a little more than $25,000.
The latest record award is no surprise to employers and their lawyers who have been monitoring the SEC’s actions under the DFA’s “bounty” provisions. The bounty provisions authorize the SEC to award employee whistleblowers between 10 percent and 30 percent of monetary sanctions that exceed $1 million, if the SEC determines that the whistleblower’s information was high-quality, based on original information, and led to a successful SEC enforcement action. As expected, the bounty provisions create a significant incentive for whistleblowers to supply information about potential securities law violations directly to the SEC.
The SEC’s DFA-required final rule, published in August 2011, defines a whistleblower as anyone who reports to the SEC information that relates to a possible violation of the federal securities laws (including any rules or regulations thereunder) that has occurred, is ongoing, or is about to occur. Anti-retaliation provisions under that fairly controversial final rule further permit disclosures by whistleblowers who report to persons or governmental authorities other than the SEC, despite explicit statutory language defining “whistleblower” as an individual who provides information “to the Commission.” Whistleblower identity under the DFA is protected from public disclosure.
We expect additional awards to come to light as the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower expands its reach. Coming on the day of a government shutdown, the SEC’s announcement was quick to note that the $14-millon award derived from a separate fund previously established by the DFA and did not come from the agency’s annual appropriations or reduce amounts paid to harmed investors.